The 51-year-old director - who is, perhaps, best-known for directing 'Room', which is based on a 2010 novel of the same name - has revealed he's been patiently waiting to adapt the Sarah Waters horror novel, having first read the story almost a decade ago.

He shared: ''When I read 'The Little Stranger', eight or nine years ago, just before it came out because somebody slipped us a copy of it, it was the first time I'd ever read a book and thought, 'I would like to adapt that.'

''So, it had been sitting there, in the back of my mind, for ages. When I read it, I'd made two well-reviewed, but very small films in Ireland, and it was very, very hard for myself and Ed Guiney, the producer I work with so closely, to be trusted with a big period film.

''Later on, while I was working on 'Frank' with Film4, they were also developing this project with producers Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood, with Potboiler in London.

''We all ended up talking, including Lucinda Coxon, who's the magnificent screenwriter that adapted this, and realising we all had a very similar vision for the film and a feeling about it, so we decided that it would be good to work together. That's how it started.''

And in spite of the attractive offers that came his way following the success of 'Room', Lenny has always been eager to return to the project.

He told Collider: ''While other films and projects came in, and lots of offers came in, and other things that I'd been developing suddenly became possible, with the success of 'Room', I just had this in my head as the next film. I just didn't want to let it go.''